Fasting is a practice that has been around for centuries. You can find people fasting all over the world, and it’s nothing unusual. Many things have changed since ancient times, and today we have a modern approach to refrainment from eating. Today, we have intermittent fasting, which is one of the most popular systems among those who practice it. The reasons are simple – it can help you lose weight without going overboard.
Furthermore, it improves your health in a way that sustainable and commodious way. If this method is not something you considered before, you might change your mind after reading our intermittent fasting guide. We are going to provide you with a couple of ways to do it. It’s up to you to decide which one suits you the best.
12 Hours a Day Fast
This one is relatively straightforward. All you need to do is avoid taking any food during the day in a twelve-hour interval. The science behind this is that if you put yourself on abstention from food for this long, your body will cope in an ideal way. It is going to start turning fat into energy. When this happens, your bloodstream gets flooded with ketones. Weight loss is what follows.
If this is your first encounter with this type of fasting, choose this option. Twelve hours isn’t something that’s hard to do, you can count in the sleeping hours, and the number of calories you take can be easily controlled during the daytime. Including sleep into the fasting period is something that makes the entire process much more comfortable. If you have work to do in the morning, the best route to take would be fasting from 8 pm to 8 am. This way, you can have dinner on time, and breakfast not too early.
16 Hours a Day Fast
Let’s up the game a little bit. This method has a numerical name – the 16:8 form. You might know it under the Leangains diet moniker. It requires you to fast for sixteen hours, with only an eight-hour eating space. If you are men, you need to go full sixteen, while women are recommended not to force it over fourteen hours. If you already tried the 12-hour fasting method, this is the next logical step. The primary reason why most people go to the next level is that they failed to have results with the previous version.
If you start using the 16:8 type, you need to eat up by 8 pm and then have the first meal of the next day around midday. Skipping breakfast is the most challenging part but an essential one. The eating window of eight hours has many benefits. According to various studies, if you stick to this plan, you can avoid obesity, liver disease, inflammation, and even diabetes. Regarding the meals, you can eat the same amount of calories as usual.
Alternate Day Fasting
Alternate day fasting comes as a good idea for those who want to fast, but also not to have too much thought about it. This method allows you to fast every other day. You need to follow a couple of rules, so it’s not a walk in the park. Some who are more disciplined avoid solid foods on fasting days. Others who are not as focused allow up to 500 calories. The days you are not fasting on are what you should look forward to as you can eat whatever you want and as much as you can.
This method is deemed healthy by experts as it helps in losing weight in overweight people, while those who have average value have immense health benefits in terms of heart health. If you are new to fasting, this shouldn’t be your first option, as it is considered an extreme one. If you have any medical issues, this is not something you should try as it can worsen your condition. We should also tell you not to discourage you, but many people who tried this type of fasting quit as it’s not easy to keep it up in the long run.
Fast 24 Hours a Couple of Times a Week
The Eat-Stop-Eat diet. It requires you not to eat anything for at least two days during the week. When we say days, we mean 24 hours. Yes, it sounds hard, but it’s doable. All you need to do is avoid all food from lunch to lunch. You can even use the breakfast to breakfast method. The preferences are all up to you. You can intake fluids such as water, tea, or other drinks low in calories.
On the days you’re not fasting, everything goes back to normal. You can eat whatever you want during those days, as the total intake of calories is reduced through the days you are fasting. We should warn you that fasting this way is very hard and can have consequences for your health. The most common symptoms include but are not limited to irritability, headaches, and fatigue. The Eat-Stop-Eat diet is something you should try out after going through some of the ways we listed above. The good news is that once you come to this level, it gets more comfortable with time as our organism adapts.
Skip Your Meals
We would highly recommend starting with this program. If you have heard of intermittent fasting and want to give it a try, go with this method. All you need to do is skip a few meals during the day and though the week. It all comes down to when you are feeling hungry. When you are eating well, and then skip the next meal. The one thing that you need to pay attention to are the calories. Aim to eat healthier foods during the meals you intake. Skipping meals is an excellent introduction to fasting. You can learn a thing or two about your body and how it responds to fasting. It shouldn’t pose a significant problem as all you need to do is eat when you’re hungry, and avoid eating when you not until it becomes a routine to skip meals regularly. If you want the most natural start to intermittent fasting, this is the one.
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